The Pirate Bay

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The Pirate Bay
Website logo
"The galaxy's most resilient BitTorrent site"
BitTorrent indexer
languages Available in 35 languages
Registration optional
On-line 2003 (currently active)
https://thepiratebay.org/

The Pirate Bay (often abbreviated: TPB , English for "The Pirate's Bay") is a web-based indexer for digital content that allows visitors to find, download and add magnet links and .torrent files to enable a peer-to-peer To be able to establish peer file exchange between users via BitTorrent .

The website was founded in Sweden in 2003 . In 2009 the founders were found guilty of aiding and abetting copyright infringement . In some countries, Internet service providers have been ordered to block access to the website.

history

Cartoon on the main page of TPB criticizing the media industry

The project was founded on August 10, 2003 by the Swedish anti-copyright organization Piratbyrån (Swedish: the pirate office). The tracker gained unexpectedly high popularity, so TPB has been a separate organization since October 2004. The tracker was operated with a self-developed software called Hypercube until 2007 , and since then with the free software opentracker .

A BitTorrent tracker itself does not take part directly in the exchange of files, but only helps the providers and inquirers of certain files (peers) to find each other. Even a BitTorrent index does not itself provide any data to be exchanged, but only information on this in the form of .torrent files, which can be used to initialize participation in the exchange of certain files. According to Swedish copyright law, since TPB as a tracker does not offer any copyrighted files, it could not be prosecuted. The Pirate Bay Tracker was the largest BitTorrent tracker in the world in 2009, and in the meantime the website was ranked 76th among the most visited sites worldwide.

A sale of the website to the company Global Gaming Factory X (GGF) for 60 million crowns was announced, but the financing and business model remained unclear prior to the sale. However, GGF's shares were suspended from trading as massive allegations of suspicion of insider trading were raised against GGF boss Hans Pandeya.

On February 28, 2012, The Pirate Bay announced on its blog that it would only use magnet links in the future instead of setting further links to .torrent files on the site. Those responsible justify their move by stating that links to .torrent files are "a waste of resources and our time" and speak of the "end of an era". Magnet links are among other things more stable and easier to use for both Pirate Bay and users.

Gottfrid Svartholm , one of the co-founders of The Pirate Bay

On August 30, 2012, co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm was arrested in Phnom Penh , Cambodia, at the request of the Swedish investigative authorities.

On April 30, 2013 The Pirate Bay moved to the .sx domain on the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten . In December of the same year, the website changed its domain to .ac for the island of Ascension , a little later to .pe for Peru , then to .gy for Guyana and after just one day back to .se for Sweden .

On December 9, 2014, the Pirate Bay servers in Stockholm were confiscated by the Swedish police. As a result, the website was no longer accessible via the thepiratebay.se domain until December 21, 2014; until February 1, it only showed a time stamp that indicated how long The Pirate Bay has been offline. However, the old logo was replaced with a new one. From April 18, 2015, new users can register again. In order to get the problem of fake accounts and the spam problem under control again, thousands of accounts were deleted.

Legal countermeasures

Confiscated in May 2006

On May 31, 2006, the Pirate Bay servers were confiscated by the Swedish police and three people were provisionally arrested for questioning. However, they were released later that day. In an interview, Piratbyrån's “darknite” announced that the three people were accused of infringing copyright laws.

The servers were in a bank building. According to Swedish law, these are considered shelters and are subject to extensive protective regulations, which, for example, only allow intrusion by the police under precisely defined conditions and clearance regulations. These protective provisions were violated during the action. Furthermore, not only the tracker-relevant servers were removed from the network during the seizure, but also the servers with information pages and servers belonging to uninvolved companies and associations. A DNA sample was taken from one of the accused, who says he is the legal advisor to TPB . Shortly after the seizure, videos from the building's surveillance cameras were published on the video broadcasting platform YouTube .

On June 3, 2006, The Pirate Bay was back online. After the seizure, the server was operated in the Netherlands . In the meantime he has been moved back to Sweden. Several backup servers to be set up worldwide are being planned. The seizure was followed by a demonstration in Stockholm on June 3, at which representatives of the Piratbyrån and other organizations and parties gave speeches directed primarily against the Swedish government.

As it later turned out, the closure was carried out at the request of the US , which threatened trade sanctions against Sweden under the WTO if the servers were not switched off. When it became known that the US had triggered the raid, unknown persons carried out a DDoS attack on the Swedish police servers.

On August 24, 2006, the first part of a series of films called Steal This Film was released on ThePirateBay.org, which documents the seizures in May 2006 and their aftermath.

Judgment for aiding and abetting copyright infringement

Carl Lundström, heir to the Wasabröd crispbread empire, and one of The Pirate Bay's most important financiers
Fredrik Neij, co-founder of The Pirate Bay
Peter Sunde , co-founder of The Pirate Bay and Flattr

The operators of Pirate Bay Fredrik Neij , Gottfrid Svartholm Warg , Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi and Carl Lundström were sentenced to one year imprisonment and damages amounting to 30 million kroner (2.74 million kroner Euros) to various music and film companies. The defendants appealed against the judgment, among other things because of bias of the judge responsible. In the appeal proceedings, Lundström, Sunde and Neij's sentences were reduced on November 26, 2010, but Gottfrid Svartholms remained. In return, however, the compensation payments were increased to 46 million crowns (almost 5 million euros). Gottfrid Svartholm then resigned and was sought internationally until 2012.

The verdict against the operators of The Pirate Bay meant that the Swedish Pirate Party experienced a massive increase in membership of 3,000 people in a few hours, which, according to its own statements, made it one of the largest parties in Sweden at the time. In addition, around 1,000 mostly young people demonstrated against the judgment in Stockholm.

DDoS attacks on the websites of the music industry ( IFPI ) and its lawyers took place in protest against the verdict .

Injunction on August 24, 2009

On the instruction of a Stockholm district court, the Swedish provider Black Internet cut the website's internet connection on August 24, 2009.

The instruction, reinforced with a threat of a fine of 500,000 Swedish kronor (around 49,000 euros), is in force until the Pirate Bay case has been decided in the last instance. The next day TPB was available again, as the operators were prepared for such a measure; the provider Black Internet, however, was the target of an attack.

Shutdown of the tracker

On November 16, 2009, Pirate Bay's BitTorrent tracker was shut down. Alternative structures were set up in advance and the swarm decentralized. The operators wrote:

“Now that the decentralized system for finding peers is so well developed, TPB has decided that there is no need to run a tracker anymore, so it will remain down! It's the end of an era, but the era is no longer up2date. "

“Because the decentralized system works so well, TPB has decided that there is no longer any need for a tracker and that it will therefore remain offline. This is the end of an era, but the era is no longer relevant. "

Interim injunction on May 13, 2010

On May 6, 2010, the International Motion Picture Association (MPA) obtained an injunction from the Hamburg Regional Court against the service provider CB3ROB, which forwarded the data traffic from The Pirate Bay . The service provider then stopped the transmission, but the site was available again the following day via a provider in the Ukraine. On May 18, 2010, the Swedish Pirate Party announced that it would be the new host of The Pirate Bay .

Blockades in countries

Argentina

The block was ordered by law on June 30, 2014 and implemented as a blocking of the IP block 194.71.107.0 to 194.71.107.255, which was assigned to The Pirate Bay.

Belgium

Following years of legal battle, eleven The Pirate Bay domains were blocked in October 2011. In April 2012, two further domains (depiraatbaai.be and baiedespirates.be) through which The Pirate Bay could be reached were blocked.

China

After being blocked in 2008 and 2012 until November 2013, the website has been accessible from China since then.

Denmark

The website was blocked in 2008 as a result of a legal battle that lasted until 2010.

Finland

Since January 2012, The Pirate Bay has been blocked by IP blocking by Elisa Oyj, one of the largest internet providers in the country. The company followed a court ruling from 2011, which was confirmed in 2012.

India

In May 2012, several Internet providers implemented a court order to ban them. The ban was lifted in June 2012 when the court explained that the ban could only apply to copyrighted content, but not to legally exchangeable content.

In July 2014, The Pirate Bay was blocked to prevent illegal distribution of games from the 2014 World Cup.

Indonesia

The website is being blocked by numerous internet providers.

Iran

The Pirate Bay is blocked.

Ireland

After years of litigation, The Pirate Bay has been blocked by several major Internet providers since June 2013.

Italy

From mid-August to the end of September 2008, the domain and IP address of ThePirateBay.org was blocked in Italy. The ban was ordered by a court in Bergamo , acting at the urging of prosecutor Giancarlo Mancusi. The owners of The Pirate Bay accused the then Italian Prime Minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi of direct interference in the closure, as his media group was in direct competition with the Internet offer.

ThePirateBay.org has not been accessible from Italy since mid-February 2010. This goes back to a ruling by the Bergamo Review Court. The court upheld the site's blocking for copyright infringement .

Malaysia

In June 2011, lawmakers ordered The Pirate Bay to be banned.

Netherlands

In January 2012 two and in May 2012 five further Internet providers were legally obliged to prevent access to The Pirate Bay by blocking domains and IP addresses.

In January 2014 the bans were lifted.

Austria

According to the ruling of the Supreme Court of August 1, 2014, it is legal to impose network blocking against copyright infringement. The anti-piracy association then asked the providers to a. Block The Pirate Bay. The providers then started to block Internet sites via DNS.

Poland

The Pirate Bay is blocked.

Saudi Arabia

The website has been blocked since April 2014 by order of the royal family.

Spain

In January 2015, the Spanish Ministry of the Interior ordered The Pirate Bay to be blocked at the national level. Since March 29, 2015, the site has been blocked on several URLs by all Internet providers.

United Kingdom

The Pirate Bay has been blocked since May 2012.

Alleged support by right-wing populists

At the end of April 2007 it was rumored on the Swedish talk show Bert on TV8 that The Pirate Bay was being financed by the right-wing populist Carl Lundström . Its spokesman Tobias Andersson also misunderstood: "Without the support of Carl Lundström, Pirate Bay would not have been able to start."

The Pirate Bay, however, denied the allegations. In an interview, co-founder Peter Sunde stated that the funding from his former boss and Wasa's heir Lundström was a discounted contract for bandwidth and server capacity at the start of Pirate Bay's operations.

BuySealand

Since January 2007, The Pirate Bay has been collecting money for the purchase of the micronation Sealand in order to legalize file sharing. After just three days, over $ 17,000 in donations were received. “Prince Michael Bates” from Sealand declared in February 2007 that they did not want to sell to Swedish buyers. On the one hand, those interested could not afford the price of 750 million euros he had estimated, on the other hand, the “Prince” also emphasized that the Swedes were violating international (copyright) law and that this was not an intended use for Sealand. According to the website, there is apparently a switch to plan B, which includes the purchase of an island.

BAYIMG

BAYIMG (in German about Bay of Pictures / Picture Bay) went public in June 2007 as the latest project by the makers of The Pirate Bay. BAYIMG is a website on which free images hosted can be.

Nearly 140 different image file formats can be uploaded via a web browser and tags are marked keywords mentioned in more detail and categorized to allow later searching and filtering based on the tags. Compressed archive files ( ZIP and RAR ) can also be uploaded, which BAYIMG automatically unpacks, indexes and then presents online as digital photo albums.

Another feature is the file size limit of 100 megabytes, which in the age of multi-megapixel digital cameras is a huge improvement over many other graphics hosters. Pictures and photo albums can later be removed with a deletion code of your choice.

In the course of Flickr's new user rules for some of its international users in June 2007 , the BAYIMG project became more attractive. BAYIMG advertises (almost) absolute freedom from censorship and is ready to host all types of images that are legal under Swedish law.

See also

literature

  • Maximilian Haedicke: Patents and Pirates . Munich 2011, The Battle for The Pirate Bay, p. 32 ff .

Web links

Commons : The Pirate Bay  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Download music, movies, games, software! The Pirate Bay - The galaxy's most resilient BitTorrent site. In: thepiratebay.org. Retrieved September 29, 2017 .
  2. ^ Ernesto: The Pirate Bay Turns 10 Years Old: The History. TorrentFreak , August 10, 2013, accessed September 3, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Ernesto: The 5 Most Popular BitTorrent Trackers. In: TorrentFreak. September 24, 2007, accessed August 28, 2014 .
  4. ↑ The Pirate Bay Tracker Shuts Down for Good ( Memento from January 24, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  5. ↑ Entry on Alexa.com, Top 500 ( Memento from December 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), the page access from November 20, 2011 (place 76) is not available
  6. ↑ According to Alexa, The Pirate Bay is one of the 100 most visited sites worldwide ( memento from January 25, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  7. ↑ Global Gaming Factory X - press release. Cision Wire, archived from the original on July 4, 2009 ; Retrieved June 30, 2009 .
  8. ^ The sale of Pirate Bay is shaky. Heise online, August 21, 2009, accessed on August 25, 2009 .
  9. ↑ No more torrents = no changes anyhow ( memento from February 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), official blog entry by the operators of The Pirate Bay, February 28, 2012.
  10. ↑ The Pirate Bay becomes The Magnet Bay: Changeover to Magnet Links Completed , Netzwelt, February 29, 2012.
  11. ↑ File sharing: Pirate Bay founder arrested in Cambodia. Spiegel Online, September 2, 2012, accessed August 27, 2014 .
  12. ^ Ernesto Van Der Sar: The Pirate Bay Moves to .SX as Prosecutor Files Motion to Seize Domains. TorrentFreak , April 30, 2013, accessed April 30, 2013 .
  13. ↑ Ernesto Van Der Sar: The Pirate Bay Moves to .AC After Domain Name Seizure. In: TorrentFreak. December 10, 2013, accessed December 10, 2013 .
  14. ↑ Bittorrent The Pirate Bay has to move again. In: Golem.de . December 11, 2013, accessed December 12, 2013 .
  15. ^ Ernesto Van Der Sar: Pirate Bay Moves to Guyana After Domain Suspension, 70 Domains to Go. In: TorrentFreak . December 18, 2013, accessed December 18, 2013 .
  16. ↑ Pirate Bay Back in Sweden's Calm Waters After .GY Suspension. In: TorrentFreak. December 19, 2013, accessed May 15, 2014 .
  17. ↑ The Pirate Bay: Registration for new users possible again. In: t3n. April 20, 2015, accessed April 20, 2015 .
  18. ↑ Interview after the server seizure in this blog from Zeitspuk.de ( Memento from June 28, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  19. ↑ Video of the surveillance cameras with the seizure of the servers on YouTube
  20. ↑ "USA used WTO as leverage for the 'PirateBay problem'" on heise.de , June 21, 2006
  21. ↑ News with reactions after The Piraty Bay was closed: STV reports USA as instigator, Pirate Party reports flood of membership, Swedish police report DDoS ( memento from January 25, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) from Gulli.com , June 2, 2006
  22. ↑ Pirate Bay: Appeal against "bizarre judgment". Heise online, April 17, 2009, accessed April 19, 2009 .
  23. ^ Ole Reissmann: Data pirates should go to jail. In: Spiegel Online . April 17, 2009, accessed May 16, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Volker Briegleb: Appeals body lowers prison sentences for Pirate Bay founders. In: Heise online . November 26, 2010, accessed May 16, 2020 .
  25. ↑ Andreas Wilkens: Pirate Bay co-founder arrested in Cambodia. In: Heise online . September 3, 2012, accessed May 16, 2020 .
  26. ↑ http://www.gulli.com/news/schweden-ffigte-proteste-2009-04-19/ ( Memento from September 4th 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  27. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of April 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  28. ↑ The Swedish court cuts the lines to the pirate bay. Heise online, August 24, 2009, accessed on August 25, 2009 .
  29. ↑ The Pirate Bay: Tracker is switched off ( Memento from January 24, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  30. ↑ "The pirates stop - the online exchange" The Pirate Bay "closes itself", Die Welt Kompakt , No. 225, Internet, p. 26, November 19, 2009
  31. ↑ Pirate Bay after Broadside of the Film Industry offline. Heise online, May 17, 2010, accessed October 8, 2012 .
  32. ↑ The film industry fails - Pirate Bay is back on the network. In: Spiegel Online. May 18, 2010, accessed August 27, 2014 .
  33. ↑ Piratpartiet levererar Pirate Bays bandbredd ( Memento from May 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  34. ↑ La Justicia ordena el bloqueo de The Pirate Bay en la Argentina. Retrieved August 4, 2014 (Spanish).
  35. ^ Antwerp Appeals Court Ruling: BAF vs Belgacom and Telenet - DNS Blocking. (PDF) nurpa.be, accessed on August 4, 2014 (Dutch, citing the original ruling it overturns).
  36. ^ Belgium Blocks Alternative Pirate Bay Domain. In: TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on June 19, 2013 ; Retrieved August 4, 2014 .
  37. ↑ Decision of 5 February 2008 from Bailiff's Court of Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark. Case FS 14324/2007. (PDF) Retrieved August 27, 2014 .
  38. ^ The Court order to shut off access to The Pirate Bay. Retrieved August 4, 2014 . Unofficial translation by Henrik Spang-Hanssen, Danish Supreme Court attorney-at-law. IFPI Danmark. December 10, 2009, archived from the original on December 10, 2009 ; Retrieved August 4, 2014 .
  39. ↑ Mikael Ricknäs: The Pirate Bay must stay blocked in Denmark, says court. In: TechWorld. IDG News Service, May 28, 2010, accessed August 27, 2014 .
  40. ↑ The Pirate Bay remains blocked in Finland . European Digital Rights. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
  41. ↑ India unblocks The Pirate Bay and other sharing sites. In: BBC News . June 22, 2012, archived from the original on April 9, 2014 ; accessed on August 27, 2014 .
  42. ^ The Pirate Bay Blocked For FIFA World Cup Piracy. In: International Business Times . Retrieved July 31, 2014 .
  43. ^ Four music firms win orders on illegal downloading. In: RTÉ News. RTÉ , June 12, 2013, accessed on August 27, 2014 .
  44. ↑ Process won - Italian providers are no longer allowed to block ( memento from January 25, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  45. ↑ Futurezone.orf.at: Pirate Bay barrier: "China in Italian"
  46. ↑ Corriere.it: Pirate Bay bloccato? Gli Italiani si riversano su BTjunkie
  47. ↑ No more free downloads as MCMC blocks 10 file sharing sites. In: The Star (Malaysia) . June 11, 2011, archived from the original on April 20, 2013 ; Retrieved June 11, 2011 .
  48. ↑ Dutch Appeals Court Lifts Block on Pirate Bay. ABC, archived from the original on February 3, 2014 ; accessed on January 28, 2014 .
  49. ↑ Ziggo en Xs4all hoeven The Pirate Bay niet lange te blokkeren ( Memento from April 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  50. ↑ Austrian providers have to block Pirate Bay. In: The Standard . July 29, 2014, accessed August 27, 2014 .
  51. ↑ Austria locks up pirate sites. In: chip.de. October 6, 2014, archived from the original on December 27, 2014 ; accessed on December 27, 2014 .
  52. ↑ Ernesto Van Der Sar: Saudi Arabia Government blocks The Pirate Bay (and more). In: TorrentFreak. February 4, 2014, archived from the original on May 11, 2014 ; Retrieved April 4, 2014 .
  53. ↑ Vodafone bloquea a The Pirate Bay en España por orden de Mº de Cultura. Retrieved December 15, 2019 (European Spanish).
  54. ↑ The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK ISPs, court rules. In: BBC News . April 30, 2012, archived from the original on February 15, 2014 ; Retrieved April 30, 2012 .
  55. ↑ Recording of the talk show: The Pirate Bay supported by a right-wing extremist ?! on YouTube , broadcast on Sunday March 24, 2007
  56. ↑ Konrad Lischka: Right-wing populist finances Internet exchange. Spiegel Online , May 4, 2007, accessed October 8, 2012 .
  57. ↑ Pirate Bay rejects allegations of right-wing extremist connections. In: Heise online . May 4, 2007, accessed August 28, 2014 .
  58. ^ Ernesto: Pirate Bay Politics for Dummies. In: TorrentFreak. May 8, 2007, accessed August 28, 2014 .
  59. ↑ Interview with the Internet magazine Zuender
  60. ↑ a b BAYIMG website
  61. ↑ Slyck.com Article about the creation of BAYIMG (English) ( Memento of the original from August 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.slyck.com